


At the Academy

by ashesandhoney



Category: Infernal Devices Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: AU altered origins, Boarding School, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-14
Updated: 2015-07-08
Packaged: 2018-03-30 11:12:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3934666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashesandhoney/pseuds/ashesandhoney
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This AU imagines a world in which Jem was never poisoned nor lost his family and where Will was raised as a Shadowhunter. They both attend the Academy in Idris and they meet there. </p><p>There isn't really a plot but there is smut.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“What are you doing in my bed?” the voice was more bemused than angry but pulled Will out of his sleep.

“Not your bed,” he said.

“No it is definitely my bed. It is in my room. That is my mother’s blanket you have wrapped around your head. It is my bed,” he said.

Will forced himself to sit up even though it made his head pound. He’d gone out drinking with Gabriel Lightwood of all people that night and might have had too much in an attempt to appear less like the country bumpkin Lightwood had already decided he was.

He sat up and unwound the blanket from his head. He looked at it. It was not his. The bed was not his and neither was the room. He swore.

“Are you naked?”

Will looked down at himself and then the pile of clothes on the floor beside him. He was still wrapped in a sheet but his leg hanging out of the side of the bed was unclothed and he could see his shirt on the floor. He lifted up the sheet to check.

“It appears I am, yes,” he said and finally looked up at the person whose bed he had invaded. James Carstairs. He couldn’t have wandered in on one of the ascendant candidates or even one of the other Enclave brats he knew from London. No. Carstairs.

Will was very good. He had had an excellent education before coming to Idris. He was determined and graced with a not inconsiderable amount of natural talent. Gabriel would graduate ahead of him by virtue of being older but Will could beat him nine times out of ten using most weapons. 

James was in a different league. The rumours abounded: Chinese training regimens were different, his mother was the best on two continents, he’d started training as soon as he could walk. No matter the truth of those rumours, it was true that he was quiet and distant and better than the rest of them. Half the school hated him and the other half, like Will, was intimidated though they wouldn’t admit it. The end result wasn’t much different. People didn’t talk to Carstairs.

“Is this a regular behaviour for you?” he asked.

“I’m a little bit drunk,” Will said. He hadn’t been asleep long enough to sober up. Sitting up left him a touch dizzy.

James Carstairs, top student, most likely to take over an Institute before he was twenty, wearing training gear well after midnight while everyone else was out at the pub, that James Carstairs, started to laugh. It was musical and bright. An infectious laugh that Will found himself grinning along to. 

“You’re beautiful when you smile, Carstairs,” escaped from Will’s mouth. He had a history of noticing that kind of thing but was usually better about keeping it silent. He did not need to declare his affections for other boys. He needed to stop noticing that kind of thing before it landed him in trouble. He shut his eyes and took a second to gather his thoughts out of the sea of liquor they were swimming in.

He opened his eyes. James was looking at him bemused. Still beautiful. Dark eyes, hair that lay silk smooth and just a little longer than was fashionable, a perfect mouth. He leaned against the wall inside the door. Graceful and relaxed.

“I suppose I’d best find my pants and remember which floor my own room is on,” Will said.

“I suppose so,” James said.

“I think this is the most I’ve ever heard you talk,” Will said swinging his legs over the side of the bed and pausing to see if nausea came. Drinking was a stupid activity. He was never doing it again.

“This is certainly the most you’ve ever said to me,” James said. Will looked up at him. He’d said it in an even enough voice. It had never occurred to Will that they’d been the ones to ignore him and not the other way around. Nearly five years and this was the longest conversation Will could remember anyone even mentioning having had with James. He didn’t even know if he preferred James or something else.

“William Herondale,” Will said leaning forward and extending a hand.

“I know who you are, brightest pupil, rising star, taking over London if Lightwood doesn’t beat you to it,” James said.

“Yeah, but everyone calls me Will or the handsome bastard by the bar. I’m trying to be friendly here, Carstairs, work with me,” he said. His hand still hung between them and he was starting to feel foolish.

“Jem,” he said crossing the room and taking Will’s hand. His was warm and stronger than it looked.

“Lovely to meet you, Jem,” Will said. He stood then and wrapped Jem’s sheet around him as much like a Roman toga as he could manage. He wobbled and Jem caught his arm to steady him. He smelled like outdoors. Will wondered what he had been doing outside in the middle of the night.

“You are boiled as an owl,” Jem said with another laugh. He seemed entertained. Will made a valiant effort at stopping the affectionate wave of protectiveness rushing through him. He wanted to befriend Jem just so he didn’t have to be lonely. He didn’t even know if he was lonely.

_Do not develop attachments to your classmates_ , he reminded himself. Usually it was easy to remember but then, the Lightwoods and the Morgenstern boy and the Ravenhaven twins were hardly worth getting attached to.

“So smart, I see why you’re top of the class,” Will slurred.

“If you didn’t get drunk and listened less to Gabriel and more to the instructors, you could take that back from me,” Jem said.

“Ha!” Will said and he made the mistake of turning toward Jem as he did. He had been leaning over and Jem had been steadying him and now their faces were very close together.  _Damn it_ , Will thought, his imagination did not need this kind of fodder. It created inappropriate things all by itself.

“Maybe you should just stay here before you kill yourself on the stairs,” Jem said. Will, with his over active imagination and his inappropriate interest should have insisted on going back to his own bed but Jem stopped holding him up and he sat back down in defeat. He tilted his head back and looked up at the half smile tugging at Jem’s mouth and had to fist his hands in the blanket to resist reaching out to touch him.

“Damn it,” he said aloud.

“Go back to sleep handsome bastard by the bar,” Jem said with just enough mocking in his tone to give Will an excuse to touch him. He shoved him hard enough that he stumbled back a step and laughed again. Heart stopping. This is why Will hadn’t ever spoken to him. It wasn’t childish cruelty or accidental avoidance. It was self-preservation.

Will lay down still wrapped in the sheet and faced the wall. He tried to shut out his stupid imagination. He ignored the sounds that were probably Jem changing his clothes and washing his face. He was doing a good job of pretending the drunken sleep he’d been woken from. Jem dropped down onto the bed beside him and Will nearly made a panicked sound but he cut it off.

As a high ranking senior student, Jem had a single room and the bed wasn’t as small as it might have been. There was enough room for them to sleep without touching but Will was so painfully aware of how close they were that he gave up on the theory of sleep.

Jem didn’t have that problem. His breathing changed almost immediately as he dropped off. When he rolled over onto his back and bumped Will’s shoulder with his own he murmured but didn’t wake. Will gave up and turned over to look at him. He was over compensating for his drunkenness by keeping his hands tucked into fists in his sheet. He would not do something inappropriate like touch him.

Jem was not intimidating asleep. He was peaceful and still. Will settled back down so he could face Jem and finally let himself drift off into sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Jem woke up slowly. Another free day. It had been two weeks since William Herondale had stumbled into the wrong room and decided to befriend the weird kid no one spoke to. Two weeks of having a friend, of being pulled down to sit with the British boys in the lunch room or of sitting alone, just the two of them while the others were off doing something else. Will went from distant to aggressively defensive almost immediately. Like a switch had been thrown and something activated. It had been two weeks of knowing that he wouldn't have to scramble for a partner or hope of an assigned partner during a paired activity. It had been a very good two weeks.

He woke warmer and more comfortable than he usually was. Someone was leaning over him and just barely touching his hair. It was nice and then disorientation set in. He wasn't a little boy, he wasn't at home, this wasn't one of his parents. There must have been an expression on his face because there was a smothered sound and then the bed shifted as someone moved away.

Will.

William Herondale had fallen asleep in his bed, again. They'd been studying and Jem had been the one to suggest he just stay. He liked having him around. Liked his easy smile and his bright eyes and the brilliant things that escaped from his mouth when he stopped being silly long enough to let them out. He asked him to stay, in part, to be sure that he would be able to have Will's attention when they woke up. He didn't want Lightwood or someone else pulling Will away into some other plan or trip before Jem could find him at breakfast.

He was surprised to find himself so needy so fast. He had been fine alone for years and now two weeks and he was desperate to hold onto this flash of friendship. He wasn't expecting it to include Will watching him while he slept or brushing his hair away from his face. Jem was the one who watched people when he wasn't supposed to, who noticed details no one else did, who thought about running his fingers through someone else's hair. Will was always all smiles and charm even when the charm was covering biting sarcasm that people didn't seem to hear. Will was far beyond anyone Jem had even let himself imagine touching.

Jem opened his eyes and looked sideways. Will's shoulder was uncovered where he'd rolled away to face the wall. Jem stared at the line of his body under the blanket, his black tangled curls. His skin was pale, scared and marked. There had been a moment during an exercise earlier in the week where Jem had drawn a courage in combat rune on Will's shoulder and the ghost of it was still there. There had been no combat and so it had taken longer for the rune to fade. His back was broad, even hunched over in feigned sleep.

Jem rolled towards him without deciding what he was going to do until his hand touched that rune he had drawn. Will flinched almost imperceptibly where Jem's fingers touched him. He was very warm and Jem smoothed his palm down the line from the rune to Will's shoulder. Will sighed and it was just as suppressed, just as barely there, as the flinch had been.

"Do you often pet the hair of your hosts?" Jem asked the back of Will's neck. He was still almost an arm's length away but he felt closer. He felt unbalanced and possibly insane. There were things you didn't do and his hand was still against Will's skin as he spoke. There was a long silent moment where Will must have been considering pretending to sleep.

"No, but no one else takes me to bed," Will said and his confidence wasn't quite as unassailable as it usually was. Will sounded very human and Jem slid a little closer and traced a line down his spine. He didn't suppress the tensing this time and Jem smiled at the way the muscles moved under skin.

"Is this unwelcome?" Jem asked him in a soft voice.

"No," Will sounded unsure. Jem ran his hand back up to the nape of his neck and Will relaxed under the touch and said with a little more strength, "No, not unwelcome."

Jem laughed just a little and got closer. He ran his hand over Will's back from his neck to his hip, pushing blankets lower and pulling little sighs out of him. He settled in behind Will and draped an arm around his waist. Will pressed back and cuddled in so their bodies were lined up. Jem smiled as Will took his hand.

They lay curled together for a long time. Jem had his face in Will's neck and was slowly committing the smell of his skin to memory. Sometimes he nuzzled a little and Will would laugh or shift and his entire body would somehow press in just a little closer. They did not talk. Talking was dangerous. Talking led to discussing why one did not snuggle one's fellow trainees.

Will flipped over and it surprised Jem. Now they were nose to nose and Will wasn't wearing a shirt which was somehow so much more noticeable when he was facing him. His eyes were deep dark blue against the black of his hair and the institutional white of the academy provided sheets. He was stunningly and distractingly beautiful.

Recovering from his surprise, Jem pushed his fingers into Will's hair as arms wrapped around him and pulled their bodies together. Will wore no shirt and Jem's pajamas were far too thin to protect him from the warmth of Will's body. Will held him tight around the waist and Jem, after a moment of tension and surprise, settled his arms around Will's neck and shoulders

Jem had never been so alarmingly and incredibly aware of another person's body. Will was warm and hard and strong and he was the one who started the kiss. There were stories of first kisses but they paled beside the actual thing. Will was gentle and obviously had more of a clue what he was doing. Jem tried to match him but his mind was spinning a little bit. He pulled Will in harder and Will answered it by grabbing a fistful of his shirt and pulling it up. They untangled only as long as it took to pull it away.

Then Will rolled back and Jem followed him, settling over him and kissing him again. They still weren't talking. Jem could give over his life to this, silk skin and strong hands and Will's little smiles between kisses. He shifted a few times before he realized what was pressing against his stomach. He pulled back a bit and looked down at Will. He was just as hard and Will must have been able to tell.

Will grinned at him, the brash confidence had come rushing back in with the kiss. He shifted his hips in a way that could only have been considered lewd. Jem shuddered. His whole body reacted to that little thrust. The look Will was giving him was like he was being dipped in ice water or set on fire all at once. Will grabbed him and used a twist and pin maneuver they'd been practicing in training rooms for months. He didn't think their professors had intended it to be used like this.

Jem looked up at him. Pinned down and caught between fire and ice, Jem didn't fight. He probably could have, probably could have thrown Will off if he had tried. His training was taking hold and churning through his mind, picking out Will's weak points, calculating escapes. He ignored it. He didn't move. He settled back, instead of shifting his knee to get leverage he moved it the other way to allow Will to pin him just a little bit tighter to the bed.

"Do you trust me?" Will asked.

"Yes," Jem said.

"Not in a training scenario or a battle, do you trust me like this?" Will asked and slid his hand down to trace the shape of Jem's erection through his clothes. Jem groaned and twisted but he was still pinned down and he'd already given up his range of motion to Will's body. He wasn't even sure if he was twisting closer or trying to pull away.

"Yes," he said in a breathier voice.

"And no judging?" Will asked.

"Why?" Jem didn't try for longer sentences. They might just come out as groans or sighs or pleading. He wasn't even sure what he wanted to plead for.

"Because I want to do something and I learned it from a prostitute and I feel like you wouldn't approve of prostitutes. Most people don’t. I am not even entirely sure that I do," he said.

"How are you so calm?" Jem asked ignoring the comment about prostitutes.

"I'm not," Will said with a burst of laughter as he collapsed into Jem and buried his face down against his neck, "I talk when I'm nervous. I also talk when I'm sad or happy or angry or hungry. I talk all the time."

"I've noticed that about you," Jem said which made Will laugh harder and Jem found himself joining in with it. Will released him from his pinned hold and they sat, still tangled together, and laughed. Whispered stories between boys were never about all the laughing they did with girls they talked into bed. He wondered if it was just Will or if girls were more serious about this kind of thing.

Jem reached out and pulled Will's face in and kissed him again. That finally broke apart and they were somehow lying down again though Jem didn't quite remember how they got there. He reached out and ran his hand along Will's stomach at his waist band. If he pushed it down just a little lower across the muscles there, he could rub his hand against the head of Will's cock through the fabric. He did it a few times, pretending to himself it was an accident even as he did it again.

Will moaned something that sounded a lot like his name and Jem slipped his hand lower. He gave up pretending he wasn't curious and ran his fingers down skin without anything in the way. Will moaned again and shifted so he could press his mouth against Jem's neck and lift his hips enough that he could kick off his pants.

Jem looked down their bodies, Will's paler chest against his, thighs touching and his hand exploring. Will wasn't quiet. Even in this. Even when he stopped bothering with words, he wasn't quiet. He let Jem touch him however he wanted for a little while. Stroking, tracing, exploring. Then Will pulled his hands away and rolled him over onto his back. Jem was startled by being stopped and by being pushed down again.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"You distracted me," Will said. He lowered his eyebrows and frowned in mock disapproval. He held Jem's arms just above the elbows and was leaning his weight down to keep him tight to the bed. He lowered himself and kissed Jem's chest. Then he was sliding down Jem's body, trailing kisses that were not silly or exploratory or anything but intimate. Jem forced himself to close his mouth because he was close to panting and that was embarrassing.

Will stripped what was left of his clothing away and Jem's mouth fell open again in a heady mix of anticipation and anxiety. He wanted and he didn't know what he wanted and he wasn't used to giving up control. Solitary and ambitious, he didn't even depend on other people very often. Now he was willingly letting himself be held down and giving himself, body and soul, over to Will. Maybe it wasn't that dramatic, a part of his mind was already trying to calm it all down but looking at Will settling himself down between his legs made him quiet that objection. It was exactly that dramatic.

Will looked up at him, hovering before the start for a long time and then he closed his hand around the base of Jem's cock and his mouth around the top. Jem's eyes fell shut and he clamped a hand over his own mouth to cut off the sound he had started to make. There were other people on the hall. His hand stayed in place as he forgot about anything outside the two of them. Will's tongue moved as he slid down lower and lower. Jem forced his eyes open just to watch himself disappear into Will's mouth. It was wet and hot and wonderful and then Will sucked hard and pulled all the way back almost as slowly as he had lowered himself down.

Jem muttered a swear word as he did it again. After a few slow passes like that he got faster, more confident. Bobbing and sucking and then pausing to run his tongue up and down the ridge at the bottom a few times before taking it down again. Jem wasn't expecting the orgasm when it hit and he was even less expecting Will to push down farther than he had before. Jem felt the release rush through him. Will sucked and the sensation crested rather than relaxing and Jem did cry out before Will was pulling back and sliding back up his body to lie down on top of him. He was a heavy solid weight against Jem's chest when he grabbed Jem's chin and tilted it down so he could look him in the eye.

"That was lewd and disgusting," Jem said and Will's eyes flared wide in horror. Jem hadn't realized that his voice would come out all drifting and dreamy and there hadn't been any humour in it. He’d meant it as a joke.

He kissed Will before he could start apologizing or back tracking or promising not to do it again. Jem kissed him deeply, sliding his tongue over Will's and that little hint of something salty and bitter there. It was disgusting but that was a distant part of his mind whispering things like that. The rest of him wanted to do it again.

"Roll over," Jem said in that still dreamy voice.

"No, tell me I'm disgusting and do that tongue thing again," Will said.

Jem did but as he was kissing him, he pushed his shoulder and Will obliged. Jem took up his spot on top and kissed him again. Will's hands were rougher now. Not stroking but pulling and grasping. He got a hold of Jem's hips and pulled them together. Softening and over sensitive, Jem yelped into the kiss. It hurt to be held that tight. His instinct to struggle loose made it worse. He put a hand on Will's chest and pushed himself up. Will looked a little confused and Jem gathered his hands so he could hold on like that again. He kissed him again and Will didn't try to pull his hands back.

Jem released him and slid down to take the place where Will had been before. He ran his hands up Will's thigh and looked up at him. He could spend a day just touching him and it would be better than any other day of his life. He was nervous and unsure of himself but even just running his fingers over Will's length brought a sigh and that was more than enough encouragement. He used his tongue first, up and down, getting a taste for the skin and the little bit of liquid gathering at the top.

He closed his lips over the top and tried to do that same thing Will had done where he'd moved his tongue with the motion but couldn't quite get it right. He looked up at Will and Will's expression said that he didn't care. Jem watched him as he moved up and down, experimenting with gentle and harsher suction and watching Will's face change. Will reached down and ran his fingers through his hair again. Not tentative and secretive now but in big bold strokes. He closed his hand around the part he couldn’t close his mouth over and moved his hand and mouth together.

"Harder, please," Will said and his voice wasn't clear. Jem looked up at him again and tightened his hand, almost squeezing as he stroked and sucked. Thinking he was clever, he pulled back and though he kept the hand tight at the base, he lapped with just the tip of his tongue. He was teasing and smiling at the way each sensation changed the look on Will's face. When Will reached his release, it hit Jem's tongue and off down his cheek as well. He faltered in surprise but didn't let go as Will twisted his hips against his hand and more hit his face.

Will laughed and Jem stared up at him. He laughed and reached for one of the bits of discarded clothing and pulled Jem in close enough to wipe it off. There was some shuffling until they were sitting up in bed and Will had one leg draped over Jem's lap and the other behind his back. He rubbed the drip that was escaping down his neck with the leg of someone's pajamas and grinned at Jem's still startled expression. Jem licked his lips and that salty flavour was there to remind him exactly what had just happened.

"I apologize," Will said and Jem finally joined in the laughter. He leaned into Will and rested his head against his shoulder and Will dropped the pajamas back on the bed and wrapped his arms around Jem so they were cuddled together as the laughter faded into something warm and calm that Jem hadn’t even known he’d been missing in is life.

"I was going to suggest we go down to the bakery by the river," Jem said, "Go up to the duck pond and feed them stale bread or something."

"I hate ducks," Will said and Jem laughed against his skin.

"What should we do with our free day then? Study?" Jem asked still smiling.

"No," Will said, "Definitely not."

He pulled Jem back into the bed and they pulled the covers up around them. There was some awkward moments as they rearranged their arms and legs until they were tucked together but could breathe. Will played with his hair and he traced patterns across Will's chest with his finger tips. They spent the day like that, hidden away from everyone else.


	3. Chapter 3

The afternoon dragged on and Jem refused to catch Will’s eye across the table so Will started kicking at his ankle. They were buried in books trying to prepare an essay for a history class. Jem was dilligent. Will was bored. They were running out of daylight.

Jem looked up at him as Will’s persistent kicking finally became impossible to ignore. His dark eyes were annoyed.

“Yes?” he asked.

“You need to stop studying before you pass out,” Will said.

“You need to start studying before you fail out,” Jem shot back without missing a beat.

“I want to show you something and we need to go before the sunsets and this Christian Messiah rises again,” Will said knocking his fist against a giant Latin Bible that he had been reading up until he realised it was already 6 in the evening. At the rate Jem was going, he would still be studying during the second coming, triple checking his grammar in the essay and the source list.

“I’m not finished,” Jem said.

“So we come back, later, after a break. Breaks are good for studying. You need them to process new information,” Will said definitively and Jem finally pushed his essay away from him and raised his eyebrows expectantly.

Will grinned and when he was sure Jem was following him he took off for the stairs. After they passed the Librarian’s desk on the 4th floor, he caught Jem’s hand and pulled him along up to the roof where he used his stele to get the door open. Jem looked at him like he was going to say something about threats of expulsion but Will’s grin stopped him.

Out on the rooftop, Will dragged Jem to the esge that faced the forest and then he looped his arms around Jem’s waist and set his chin on his shoulder. Touching Jem in public, even deeply hidde public like this, was a thrill he couldn’t pass up. Jem settled back against Will’s chest and folded his hands over Will’s arm. Will nuzzled his ear and luxuriated in being able to have this moment.

“Why are we on the roof?” Jem asked.

“So I can take advantage of you,” Will said.

“Really?” Jem asked and though he was facing away, Will could hear the smile in his voice and kissed his neck. Ever responsive, Jem dropped his head back in an invitation that Will took, kissing up the side of his throat and licking at the hollow behind his ear while Jem pressed against him.

The light was fading. They had almost missed it, sunset came early at this time of year. Giddiness kicked through Will and he nudged Jem’s attention back up.

“Look,” Will said.

Out over Brocelind forest a mass of lights rose. From a distance, they looked like lightning bugs but they moved in formation. Will cuddled in closer to Jem as his jaw fell open. Free fae, pixies mostly, welcoming a new moon. It was a dance, a ritual, a beautiful cascade of flashing lights in a rainbow of colours. It wouldn’t last long. Maybe five minutes above the forest canopy and only at sunset on the new moon. Jem watched it without moving. Will grinned. He’d caught this show by accident and had gone digging in the archives to find out what it was and why. He’d kept it a secret until now. There must have been others who knew but no one else he shared it with.

“Where do they go?” Jem asked as the lights stopped eaving and spinning and started to wink out and drop back into the trees.

“Feasting? Drinking? Faerie things,” Will said with a shrug. Jem turned to him without pulling back from his arms. Will resettled his grip to hold Jem against him. He was still smiling.

Jem grinned at him and then kissed him. Will sighed and kissed him back, pulling him in closer and tighter. They caught up against a wall and Jem pushed Will back kissing harder until a bell rang across campus. Dinner hour had begun. Jem looked as startled as Will felt at the realization that the real world was still out there.

Will stole another kiss and then pulled him back across the rooftop in the fading light to the door where he paused for another kiss.

“If every break is like this, we should take them more often,” Jem said before they snuck back inside and back to their books.


End file.
